The Eve of Relative Chaos
by kurgaya
Summary: IchiHitsu - slash - Ichigo didn't really want to travel to the in-laws, but he supposed with Toshiro with him everything would be alright.


**Note: **This is a belated birthday story (for Tōshirō) and a Christmas story mixed into one because my original Christmas idea got stuck in the mud and I had to work with what I already had to meet the Secret Santa deadline. No beta for this, unfortunately, so please excuse any mistakes, and a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all! *throws presents and turkeys around*

Please, enjoy this oneshot, despite this not being very 'Christmas-y'. (And, admittedly, this isn't the best thing I've ever written, sorry)

P.S. Ichigo is 17 and Karin/Yuzu are 13. Set after the Winter War. No full-bringing, Ichigo still has his powers. **There are OCs** in this story, but it's to be expected really because Kubo hasn't created a complete family for Ichigo (on Masaki's side) so I had to do it for him, but none of them are major and the story still follows Ichigo/Tōshirō so there's nothing to worry about, right? :D

(Sorry for OCC-ness, my brain has been fried by everything)

* * *

><p><strong>The Eve of Relative Chaos<strong>

A Secret Santa gift

**Prompts:** Mistletoe - Snow - Christmas Present

* * *

><p>"So we're going with triple Science, Maths, and English Literature then?"<p>

Karin scowled at her elder brother's question as she opened the car door and shoved her backpack down onto the floor. "How many times have we gone over this?" she asked, sliding into the passenger seat of the family car as Ichigo laughed nervously, getting into the back with some difficulty. Yuzu had already clipped on her seatbelt as he did the same, pulling the door shut behind him, and poor Tōshirō was now trapped in the middle of the back-seat looking uncomfortable - the car was advertised as being a five seater, but the manufactures generally pushed the boundaries to this claim fairly often. Isshin was still fussing around outside the car, none of them were sure what the problem was this time, and Ichigo patted his boyfriend's thigh apologetically.

"Journey's not too long," he explained. "Sorry you had to be in the middle."

Tōshirō didn't reply, solemnly accepting his fate, and just as Ichigo began to chuckle quietly Karin butted in with a snap at her brother, "You didn't answer the question, dummy."

"Oh. That wasn't a rhetorical question?"

She glared, and his laughing stopped abruptly. Isshin, having just clambered into the car and shut the door, took this sudden action to be his fault and reacted in a way that befitted the over-exaggerated expression of misery on his face. "Oh my son!" he wailed, swivelling in his seat and reaching desperately into the back of the car for the person trying ever so hard to unclick his seatbelt and leap out of the car. "What did I do? _What did I do? _Why has my son become ever so sad?"

Thankfully Karin grabbed his ear and sharply yanked him back into his seat, but of course, no action was without a price. "Karin!" cried Yuzu as Isshin whimpered and cradled the right side of his head. "Don't be horrible! He didn't deserve that!"

"He deserved more than that," muttered both Karin and Ichigo darkly, and Tōshirō just rolled his eyes at the sibling's antics.

It was Saturday. December 24th. Christmas Eve. Tōshirō wasn't a big fan of Christmas, or most holidays actually, but Ichigo had roped him into spending their first ever Christmas together with the family, and the short taicho couldn't really refuse. For one, it would be incredibly rude, and two, the Kurosakis had welcomed him into the family with open arms, even though he and Ichigo had only been 'dating' (a term that neither of them liked to use) for the best part of half a year, and spending the weekend with Yuzu's cooking, Karin's humorous sarcasm, and Isshin's joy didn't really sound like that bad of an idea. So he had easily given in to his boyfriend's innocent puppy-dog eyes (with a scoff and a muttered, "fine" because he didn't want to give himself away) and had promised to free up his schedule so that Soul Society had no reason to intervene.

Isshin turned the key and the car roared to life, and the incredibly car-sick taicho suddenly remembered just how long this journey was going to be. There must have been a funny expression on his face for Ichigo's hand was patting his knee again, and he sank back into the hard seat with a groan.

"It's only two hours," said Ichigo, trying to offer his boyfriend some comfort as the car pulled out and joined the early morning traffic. "You can last that long, right?"

_Damn him, hitting his pride._ "Of course," snapped Tōshirō with a bit more bite than necessary, and Ichigo just gave him one of his utterly perfect smiles in response. "Good, good," said the teenager, bringing his hand up to brush his knuckled against Tōshirō's rosy cheek before settling it back in his lap. "And it's triple Science, Maths, and English Literature then?"

Karin tutted from the front seat. "Stop worrying about it!" she said, not turning around to see the embarrassed blush rising onto her brother's face. "Honestly, at this rate _you'll_ be the one to slip up!"

'Slip up' of course, meant 'reveal the dead man sitting in the living room to a bunch of humans', and this possibility was the one thing that Ichigo was sure was going to be nagging him in the back of his mind all night. The announcement that the family on their Masaki's side was going to be getting together was a rather late one, and at first Ichigo wondered why his father was telling him this, sitting at his desk with his Math homework, but then Isshin had dropped the bomb-shell and explained that the get-together included them, and there was no way for them to get out of it.

Now, Ichigo had nothing against the Hayashis, but having only meet the majority of them a handful of times (and he was counting the funeral, even though he had been bawling his eyes out far too much to recognise anybody's face) he could honestly say that he didn't know them. His mother's family was quite large, much larger than their average household of four (five if you counted Tōshirō) and his aunts and uncles and cousins all had names lost to him; hopefully, though, they wouldn't be around long enough for him to have to call anybody by name.

They were on their way to Aunt Emi's home (he only knew her name because she had been the person on the phone), a woman at least ten years older than Masaki, divorced, and pretty damn loaded. She lived in her mansion of a house all by herself, which was perfect for family get-together's for now there was enough room to escape and hide when things got too stressful.

Not that Ichigo was expecting things to come to that, of course.

(It was going to be worse, much worse)

At least he had Tōshirō with him. He was pretty sure that, with the right amount of prodding, the collected dragon would unwind and scare any offending, _smothering_ relative away to hide in a corner and whine with their tail tucked between their legs.

It was a sight he was looking forward to seeing.

* * *

><p>Just a few hours later Isshin pulled the car up along the long stone driveway leading up to the scarcely decorated house, the guarding trees either side of the path wrapped tightly in multi-coloured lights that guided them on their journey up towards the mansion. Nearly all of the rooms were lit behind the windows, creating a almost fantasy feel in the early evening, and Yuzu let out a quiet 'ooo' which had Ichigo rolling his eyes. Tōshirō was nudged gently awake from his position against Ichigo's shoulder - the ginger boyfriend wasn't the only one happy that the easily car-sick shinigami had fallen asleep half an hour into the journey, but none of the Kurosakis had made any comments.<p>

They had brought very little with them, just a small handbag for each of the girls and a larger bag which contained a few presents and a bottle of wine for the host of the event; Ichigo had his wallet and phone in his jeans pockets, but Tōshirō had brought nothing, the only thing of any importance to him being his soul pager, but Soul Society had promised he was not to be contacted.

Thankfully it was Aunt Emi who opened the door, but Ichigo shouldn't really have been surprised. She was a chubby women with short, choppy hair just a few shades darker than her late-sister's, and for some reason completely ludicrous to absolutely everybody, she allowed _nobody else_ to answer her own front door. Which was great for the Kurosakis, because they didn't get on very well with a _certain few_ members of their in-laws.

Namely Tsubasa, Masaki and Aunt Emi's older brother, and his wife and family.

Today the woman was wearing a worn-down red Christmas hat, and Isshin's face lit up like a Christmas Tree at the prospect of getting one himself.

"Oh look at you all!" cried Aunt Emi, a face full of delight and her arms reaching out for the nearest Kurosaki child. Football skills kicking in Karin leapt out of the way at the last possible moment, and unaware Ichigo ended up being the victim of Aunt Emi's crushing hug. "You've grown so much since I last saw you!"

Considering the last time they had seen Aunt Emi was five years ago, this wasn't really surprising.

"Aunt Emi," Karin muttered, her eyes glued to the paleness of her brother's face. "I think Ichi-nii needs some air."

"What? - _oh_, yes, oh, sorry dear - "

She patted Ichigo on the head as if he were five, the fluffy ball on the end of her hat bobbing up and down, and he smiled down at her somewhat awkwardly. "Hi Aunt Emi." He gasped, tugging at his turtle-neck collar. First impressions didn't usually mean a lot of Ichigo, having been back-stabbed in Soul Society far too many times by those he considered allies, but this woman gave off a pleasant, accepting feeling that he instantly began to like. Her toothy grin only fuelled his comfortableness around her, and he started to wonder if the evening wasn't going to be as bad as he had thought.

"Such a polite young man," she gushed, unaware of the three sets of eyebrows rising in disbelief behind the spluttering teen. "And Yuzu - oh! You look so much like your mother!"

The Rangiku-like hug was repeated on the twins, and after shaking hands with Isshin and ushering them all inside, Aunt Emi noticed the white mop of hair bobbing along at chest level. She stared at Tōshirō for a moment, either taking in the oddness of his appearance or wondering why on earth she had just let a stranger into the house, Ichigo wasn't sure which, and as Karin and Yuzu followed Isshin into the extremely spacious living room to get acquainted with the rest of the family, he felt the need to set the situation to ease.

"Um - Aunt Emi, this is Tōshirō. Tōshirō this is my mum's older sister, Emi Chiba."

Tōshirō would have surely bowed to the woman if she had not beaten him to the punch and pulled him into a hug. Glad that she had done that and not ruffled up his boyfriend's spiky hair, Ichigo let out the breath he was holding and let the wicked smile grow into his face instead.

"So _adorable_!" Aunt Emi squealed, attracting the attention of the small circle of people chatting in the living room doorway. One of them Ichigo immediately recognised to be Aunt Emi's son, Akio, but the young female attached to his shoulder and the pair they were talking to where all lost to the substitute shinigami.

"Mum!" cried Akio with a healthy laugh from across the room, wearing a green knitted jumper that had probably been forced upon him for the day. "You're scaring the poor kid!"

Ichigo knew this not to be true, but the distressed expression on Tōshirō's face when Aunt Emi released him was, understandably, something you would link to fear. Tōshirō wasn't scared of the bubbly woman, oh no, she was just far to like his fukutaicho for him not to feel weird around her, and his face only twisted that much more when he realized that Akio had called him a 'kid'.

Aunt Emi stuck her tongue out at her son. "Oh hush Akio. It's not everyday somebody cute walks into my house."

Tōshirō blushed and ducked his head to try and avoid the people around him from noticing. He was a headstrong taicho, capable of bending the heavens to his will, and yet mothers and grandmothers were a utter weakness of his, with their sweet words and gentle hands. Ichigo laid a hand on his shoulder and gave it a squeeze as Aunt Emi and Akio bickered across the room.

"She's only telling the truth, Tōshirō."

His blush deepened and Ichigo's grin widened. "Shut up."

Aunt Emi had been replaced by Akio when the couple remembered that there was a world around them, and the tall handsome lad playfully elbowed Ichigo in the chest to catch his attention. "So Ichigo," he said, a grin on his face befitting the Cheshire Cat. "When did this happen?"

'This' could have meant a lot of things, but since Akio was so much like his mother, Ichigo knew exactly what the man was referring to. Akio was seven years older than Ichigo, at the ripe age of twenty-four, but in every incidence that the two had been together Ichigo had always remembered Akio acting like a child, a big nutty child with the capability of making the sun shine where-ever he was. Of course, Akio had been nineteen and Ichigo had been twelve the last time they had met, but there had always been a brotherly bond between them, and for once, Ichigo found himself liking the idea of having an older sibling - a protective older sibling - instead of being the 'big brother' all of the time.

He wasn't going to tell anybody that though.

"March this year," he admitted with a smile, having always been secretly proud that he had managed to worm his way into the icy dragon's heart. Well, worm his way past the _defences_ of said heart; Tōshirō had thick vigilant walls surrounding the core of his very being, and while he may had given Ichigo the privilege of peeling away his mask, there was still a long way to go before the brash teenager could securely claim the tiny heart as 'his'.

Not that Tōshirō was unfaithful - oh no, he was the most loyal person Ichigo knew, but years of hardship and neglect had built him up to be as wary as a deer, chary and alert, but nevertheless - in Ichigo's opinion - still as valuable as a diamond.

Akio must have agreed, for after running his eyes up and down Tōshirō a couple of times, he thumped his cousin on the back approvingly. "It's nice to meet you Tōshirō," he said, holding out his hand. "Name's Akio Chiba, how did you fall for my idiotic cousin here?"

Tōshirō shook the offered hand, Akio reminding him far to much of Shuuhei Hisagi for him to feel uncomfortable. "I'm not sure," he said with a sly smile. "But it probably had something to do with his outrageous hair."

Akio laughed. Ichigo groaned. Tōshirō wasn't feeling quite so glum anymore.

* * *

><p>"Who wants to sing <em>Christmas songs<em>?"

There was a collective groan from everybody in the room under thirty, and the parents and grandparents of the group found themselves laughing. Aunt Emi pouted dramatically as she wiggled into the empty space on the sofa, disappointed that nobody had taken her up on her offer, and this brought another round of laughter from the older members of the family, sipping their drinks and watching their children.

It was a truly wonderful thing, being surrounded by so much family and so much_ love_, and as cheesy as it sounded and as sappy as it made him feel, Tōshirō wished that he could experience this feeling more often. Despite the fact that Mai Hayashi ("Grandma" to Ichigo) and all of her descendants weren't really Tōshirō's family (he would get plenty of argument if he voiced this opinion out-loud), they had welcomed him with open arms and allowed him to settle into their excessively large circle as if the space had been waiting for him all along.

Which it kind of had, really, for Ichigo was bound to get himself a partner at some point, and even if that space hadn't had his name on specifically, Tōshirō was happy that there had, at least, been some sort of place for him in the family.

He liked family. It made him feel wanted.

"Ah don't worry about it Emi," said Chiyoko sweetly with her high-pitched voice, the ginger young woman that had been with Akio earlier: his fiancée. "None of us can sing anyway so - "

There was a round of disagreement with this statement, and Tsubasa snorted so fiercely into his drink that it splattered across the carpet. It took a couple of minutes for the gentle chatter to break off back into small groups, and, seated against the wall with his legs drawn up, Tōshirō returned to gazing out of the deep-set living room window from his place on the window-sill. The room was lit with a dozen electric candles (Aunt Emi had been prepared for the young children in the house) and so the only reason he could see the snow softly falling in the dark outside was because of the tremendous Christmas Tree lights that were pulsing slowly in the corner of the room, right behind Ichigo's head. It almost gave a halo effect of his already-bright-enough mop of hair, and Ichigo grinned obliviously from the opposite side of the window-sill, his legs tucked close to him in a very similar fashion to his boyfriend's.

"You want to go out in that, don't you?"

Teal eyes tore from the winter wonder-land scene outside to scowl at the knowing grin on Ichigo's face.

"Shut up."

"God, how many times have you told me to shut up tonight?" It was clearly a rhetorical question, and a teasing one at that, but somebody further into the room decided it was his right to answer for the still-scowling taicho.

"Obviously he's trying to tell you something," snapped Tsubasa's teenage son from behind his bottle of Smirnoff, and Ichigo wasn't the only one to glare daggers at him. Tōshirō felt a smile tug at his lips at Yuzu's valiant attempt to look scary as she stared ferociously at the back of Riku's head, and Ichigo, noticing just moments later, burst into a fit of un-manly giggles.

This rare act earned the shinigami couple the attention of a couple more people in the room, one of which, unsurprisingly, being Akio.

"Hey Ichigo!" he called, and Riku turned away from the couple only to find himself face to face with an angry Yuzu. "So what's your plans for the future, hey?" He held his fiancée close while he said this, his fingers tickling over her slightly pregnant stomach. "Gonna become a doctor like your old man?"

Isshin was talking to Masaki's mother and so didn't notice the insult that he usually would have reacted to under normal circumstances.

Ichigo resisted the urge to snort. "Dunno," he said truthfully, waving away the comment. "Haven't thought that far yet."

His close family and Tōshirō were obviously the only people who understood why. Explaining the whole 'oh, well I'm part death god' predicament to the in-laws was something that they would not be doing in the near future. Or at any point. At all.

"But aren't you in your last year of school?" Chiyoko asked, cocking her head in confusion. "Are you planning on going to college, at least?"

"Suppose so," answered Ichigo with a shrug. "I'll probably continue studying Psychology and Science, so I might just end up as a doctor, you never know."

Chiyoko must know a lost cause when she saw one, for she just nodded and smiled, turning to the quietest person in the room instead. "What about you, Tōshirō?" And then, because she couldn't be the only person in the room who wasn't sure; "What year of school are you in, anyway?"

Which basically translated to, 'how old _are you_?'

Suddenly panicked, because this was the moment he had been dreading all night, Ichigo shot Tōshirō a helpless look out of the corner of his eyes. Tōshirō, however, kept his gaze forward so that Chiyoko didn't pick up on the lie, and answered calmly, "I'm in the same year as Ichigo."

This caused a number of expressions to rise in surprise.

Tōshirō smiled it off, having known that his words were going to be doubted. "We're the same age, well, almost, he's a couple of months older than me, and we met when I transferred from Tokyo."

Ichigo nodded along as the listeners took Tōshirō's words as the truth, eagerly wanting to know more about the new addition to their family, and it was just as Akio leaned across and kissed his lover on the cheek that he remembered something, though something not directly related to his cousin kissed his fiancé.

"Wait, Tōshirō, when's your birthday?"

A stunned silence followed his words, the background music from the radio above the fireplace making the atmosphere a tad more awkward than Ichigo had ever wanted it to be. "What?" he asked, scanning the disapproving faces before turning to his amused boyfriend. "What'd I say?"

"You don't know your own boyfriend's _birthday_?"

Ichigo shot the glare right back at Tsubasa's daughter, lounging on the floor with a bottle of coke in-between her legs. This action practically sealed his fate, and Tōshirō seemed to be the only person in the room not bothered by Ichigo's lack of knowledge. Birthdays weren't important to him anyway, though he guessed he should make an acception for Ichigo, and the fact that it had passed without any real celebration was fine enough for him, being a shinigami and all. He supposed that humans didn't share the same feelings as him, considering how much of a 'thing' they were turning this into, and he played along, if only to make himself seem less like a dead warrior and more like the teenage student he was pretending to be.

"Um, no...? Tōshirō - when _is_ your birthday? Have I missed it?"

As much as he wanted to lie to Ichigo right now to save him from the embarrassment of being a 'terrible boyfriend', Tōshirō just shrugged and replied honestly, "It was on Tuesday."

"On Tues - what? The twentieth of _this month_?"

He nodded, vaguely hearing a snort and a mumbled, 'Goes with his hair, I suppose' from somewhere deep in the room, and Ichigo groaned loudly from the opposite end of the window-sill. "Why didn't you _tell me_?"

"Ooh - lover's spat."

"Shut it Riku."

(Yuzu high-fived her sister for saying the exact words that she had been thinking).

The miserable expression settling onto Ichigo's face told Tōshirō that perhaps he should have made something out of his birthday, for now Ichigo was surely going to be sulking around the house for the rest of the day, and tomorrow, most likely, even though the rest of the house was going to be high with Christmas spirits. He, discretely as possible, shuffled across the window-sill and tucked himself into the space between Ichigo and the glittery glass (the rest of the family had turned away at Riku's words, realizing that it actually could develop into a lover's spat) and allowed a lean arm to wrap around his shoulders.

"I'm not bothered by my birthday," he explained, wanting to clear things up without the family asking awkward questions.

Ichigo frowned. "I am. I feel bad for missing it, now."

"There's no need, if I wanted to celebrate it then I would have told you about it. Really, it's okay, I don't know how old I am anyway."

He had added the last part as a weak attempt at humour, and Ichigo did indeed smile, trying to pull Tōshirō closer. "We could celebrate when we get home, though I don't have anything to give you."

"Why don't you go out and have a meal?" called Grandma Mai from her seat snuggled in the armchair. "There's a couple of restaurants just ten minutes walk from the house."

Ichigo instantly brightened at the idea. He would be able to spend the night alone with Tōshirō, away from his crazy father and the rest of the family, and he would be getting a meal out of it too. Considering Aunt Emi hadn't even started the dinner yet gave people the impression that they would be getting take out from somewhere in the nearby town, and this way (with he and Tōshirō going off on their own) they wouldn't have to share.

"What'd you think Tōsh?" the substitute asked, nudging the taicho. "Wanna go for a wander? The snow's still falling too."

That was a very obvious attempt at drawing the male from the house, and Tōshirō laughed softly as he shook his head. "It's alright with me."

"Ichigo will be paying, of course," added Akio with a wink at his cousin. "He is the one on top aft - "

"_**Akio!**_"

The young man shrunk into his fiancée at the bellowed words, though the cheeky grin never slipped off of his face.

* * *

><p>"Hey Tōshirō, do you like spicy food?"<p>

They were standing outside one of the many restaurants lining the town's high-street, and lchigo squeezed Tōshirō's hand Lighter as he turned away from the menu mounted behind the glass. Grandma Mai 's words had held true, for they were only ten minutes or so away from the mansion, but the peaceful quiet of the evening allowed the pair to relax. Many of the restaurants they had passed didn't appeal to either of them, and both of them were remarkably picky when it came to food (though Tōshirō more so than Ichigo) but as Tōshirō pulled the snow off of a nearby tree (childishly, but Ichigo wasn't going to tell him that) the other half of the partnership had examined something through the nearest window.

"Spicy food?"

Chocolate eyes enhanced the smite that turned Tōshirō's way. "Yeah, "said lchigo, indicating his head towards the menu and the people inside the building. "Spicy food."

Tōshirō followed lchigo's gaze, stared at the menu for a moment, and then looked up. "Nando's?"

"Yeah, Nando's."

A thin eyebrow rose, and Tōshirō couldn't help but huff from behind his scarf. "Spicy... chicken...?"

"Yeah, spicy chicken."

When Ichigo was looking at him like that, how could he deny?

They went inside. Nando's was fairly empty and one of the waiter's lead them to a table at the side of the room quickly. She asked if either of them had eaten here before as she laid down their menus in front of them, and considering both of them stayed silent she took that as a 'no'. Explaining how the restaurant worked was memorized, and they both thanked her, opening up their menus as she walked away.

"How... spicy do you think 'hot' is?"

Tōshirō unwound his scarf as Ichigo stared helplessly at the menu. "I don't know," he replied, glancing down at the menu himself. "How about we get a platter and share?" He pointed out the sharing platter for two, seeing how it came with one chicken and sides. "And for the spiciness, we could just guess?"

Ichigo chuckled. "Do you like spicy food?"

"Never really had it - medium then?"

"Nah, lets have hot."

So they did.

Ichigo went up to the counter and ordered the platter and two bottomless drinks, figuring that despite how much his little taicho loved tea, having a unlimited drink would be better in case the chicken ended up being too hot for him. After paying for the meal he filled the two glasses with coke for him and water for Tōshirō, then wandered up the stairs and through the tables to return to his table.

"Alright," he said, putting the glass of water and ice down in front of Tōshirō, grinning when he saw that the teal eyes were fixed on the snow falling outside the window. "We already went out and played in that."

"We did not 'play', Ichigo," snapped Tōshirō, fixing him with a stare. Unsure whether or not he was being teased, Ichigo just continued grinning and sat down, brushing off the comment. "Come on Tōshirō, you can't deny that you weren't having fun."

A grumble was what he got in reply. That was as good as a 'I had fun' that he was going to get, it seemed.

Their meal arrived just a few minutes later, all on one large plate. The chicken was in four pieces, which was perfect, and the chips and coleslaw looked yummy. Ichigo gave them each a piece of chicken, chuckling as he took out the little flag marked 'hot' stuck in one of the pieces, and then scooped a handful of chips onto his plate.

"You wanna try it first, or me?"

Taking a sip of his drink, Tōshirō gave Ichigo the go-ahead. He took a large mouthful of the meat, tearing it from the bone, chewing it thoroughly before making an appreciative noise. "It's not too bad," he said, pondering. "Go on, you'll probably like it."

Trusting his boyfriend's analysis, Tōshirō tucked in.

"O - oh-kay, that's a little bit hotter than - ahha, okay."

Ichigo dropped his piece of chicken back down onto his plate and grasped for his drink. He downed it almost in one, swished about the ice-cubes, and then frowned at the smirk across the table. "Just a tad hot."

"Just a tad," Tōshirō repeated sarcastically, sipping his own drink once again, watching as Ichigo excused himself to get another drink. "Who would've thought that _I_ had the spicy tolerance."

Having been close enough to hear that comment, Ichigo stuck his tongue out before skipping down the stairs with his glass.

* * *

><p>"Think of this as a belated birthday present and an early Christmas present."<p>

On his third glass, Tōshirō licked his lips and sat back into his chair. He was rather shocked that he actually liked spicy food, considering, well, considering a lot of things, and poor Ichigo was really struggling through his meal. The ice wielder thought it was ironic really, and amusing, which he hadn't minded telling Ichigo at least seven times that evening, and as the ginger sat down from filling up his glass once again, Tōshirō rolled his eyes.

"You didn't have to worry about my birthday."

"You keep telling me that," said Ichigo, munching on a chip. "Though I su - "

A whisper from one of the girls behind the counter interrupt him, "How many people do you think noticed the mistletoe in the door-frame?" The man beside her gave a tut, sorting out something by the till. "I told you it was a terrible place to put a mistletoe - who's going to look up when they walk in?"

The girl shot him a glare as he turned around. "Well where else was I meant to put it? I had to put it _somewhere_. Putting it by the bathroom would have just been wrong - and anyway, who goes to the toilet in pairs?"

The guy grumbled something that sounded oddly like 'you girls' and she smacked him around the back of the head lightly. Ichigo laughed, but hastily hid him face behind the menu when the waitress glanced over in his direction. Tōshirō rolled his eyes, finishing off his drink, and returned to watching the snow settle outside.

"What time were we heading back to the clinic?"

Ichigo put down the menu, happy that he wasn't about to get into another trouble with the opposite sex. "Home Tōshirō, it's called home."

Tōshirō hummed, in agreement Ichigo wasn't sure, and the substitute decided it was time to return. Or, leave the restaurant and wander the streets until his father gave him a call. Checking that he actually had his mobile in his pocket, Ichigo tidied up, asked Tōshirō if he was finished, though he clearly was, and then slipped on his coat. "Come on then," he said, holding out his hand. "Shall we head back?"

Tōshirō didn't take his hand, though Ichigo hadn't expected him to. "Lets's explore for a bit," he suggested, thanking the waiter when they bid them goodbye and a merry Christmas. "Unless, your father is expecting us."

"Sounds good to me," Ichigo replied, pushing open the door and holding it open. "Happy early-Christmas Tōshirō."

And he leaned in and kissed him under the mistletoe.

* * *

><p><strong>Note:<strong> Ergh, it's terrible. Review anyway?

Merry Christmas everybody! And a Happy New Year!


End file.
